Story Weekend: What’s in a Name?
How did you get your name? How did you choose your kids’ names? Your pet’s? What’s the story behind the names in your life?
Names are on my mind, since I have a new cast of characters to christen. I often pick a name, then audition it by writing a few scenes using it to see how it feels. I sometimes have to run through two or three names for my most important characters. Hopefully you didn’t have to do that with your kids!
So what’s your ‘name’ story?
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.
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TamElaine
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Mar 16, 2013 07:06AM
oh Names intrigue me ! I'm Tammy, named after the Tammy movies. I loved my grandmother dearly and when she was dying my last words to her when I was 13 was that I would name my first daughter after her....and 10 years later that's exactly what I did. My youngest girl's name though comes with a neat little story - My children's father (my now ex-husband) had chosen the name Raelene because he found the name when he was driving - apparently the name of a woman who owned a trucker's diner by her own name - but I was tipped off shortly before giving birth that he was having an affair with this woman, so in the labour room, I was panicked to find a new name....a nurse brought in a t.v. for me - I was watching CMT, an interview with Keith Urban, well before he became involved with Nicole Kidman. The interviewer asked him what kind of woman he liked to date - a Ginger or a Maryanne...and so I asked myself the same question - What kind of woman did I want my daughter to grow into....and so Maryanne it was ! (just as a side note, Keith Urban also said Maryanne)
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OMG, that is one good story, Tammy! Though I'm dying to know what your grandmother's name was.
Well,my father was very adamant that his children should have our own names and not necessarily ones that were common in our community( He grew up a Stephen among Billys, Johns, and James). The first time he heard the name "Erin" was of course courtesy of "The Waltons" and he immediately loved it. Years later, he and my mother were watching MASH and one of the characters had a daughter in the states named, Erin. My parents looked at one another and said "There is that name again" and so that is how I received my name. It really helped among a sea of Amandas and Amys!
I love the name Erin. That's what I named the main character in The Good Father! Pretty name.
Diane wrote: "OMG, that is one good story, Tammy! Though I'm dying to know what your grandmother's name was."haha, I'm sorry - I had it in there and after some editing to shorten it I guess I deleted it....her name was Violet !
:). There is a violin named Violet in my work-in-progress. Pretty name.
My parents named me after a Chicago Blackhawks hockey player named Darcy Rota. And the funny thing is that if I would have been a boy, my name still would have been Darcy. I hated my name growing up--I just wanted a common name. But I had a very common maiden name, and my parents wanted something different. I love my name now, and my husband and I continued the hockey tradition and named our son Jeremy after former Blackhawk Jeremy Roenick.
My mother gave me the middle name Kay after a girl that went to her high school. My mother was very poor and grew up in the Appalachia area. There was a beautiful blonde girl who came from a wealthier family.She was a year older than my mom. My mother said this girl was always so nice to her. They were never friends, but her kindness made an impression upon my mom, hence my middle name.
Darcy, I think you have a beautiful name. A little girl in my neighborhood when I was growing up (loooong ago) also had a common maiden name and was named Darcy. I thought it was so unique and beautiful. Debbie, that's a touching story about your mom and the older girl. Wow.
I am the youngest of 4 girls, my mother picked my oldest sister Kimberlys name and my Irish dad jumped on Kathleen for the second. So Karolyn and Kolleen with Ks followed. In that Irish tradition we searched for names for our baby but couldn't find an Irish boys name beginning with K that my husband and I both liked, so we have a 'Ryan' .
Love all those Ks! Ryan's a great name. You can start the R tradition.
We hope he will, his dad is Robert so.... I want to tell you I loved this topic and will follow the story posts. I really admire how you found a way to connect with your readers and appreciate you responding to the posts since it is time consuming. I love your books, you are an amazing writer/storyteller. I picked up secret life of CeeCee Wilkes, it was an amazing book that brought me to read a lot of your other books. You have afan in me.
I was named after an old schoolfriend of my Mum's. My sisters were given the lovely names of Gerarda, Eugenie, Lisa and Leonie, so the five of us had fun growing up and sharing the unusual names with everyone, while my brothers were named Jim and John. When asked to explain the reasoning, my Mum simply said "I don't like flowery names for boys". I think us flowery girls blossomed ok!
Kolleen, there are tons of replies to this topic on my blog as well. It is a bit of a challenge keeping up with the two sites ( GR and my blog on my website ), but I do love communing with my readers!Alva, wow, you girls did get some memorable names!
My mom named me Shari after Shari Lewis the Lambchop puppeteer. I like the spelling of my name, but when I was young it was very hard to find personalized items with a name spelled like mine and everyone always misspelled my name. As an adult, I find more people with the same spelling as mine.
My name is my mom's name flip-flopped as my parents couldn't agree on a name. Each of my kids first names were names that I was stuck on during my pregnancy (with the exception of my son's, his was changed while I was pushing - no lie). Each of their middle names though is something special. My son's is Grant (after my Dad), my first daughter's is Grace because "by the Grace of God I finally got my little girl" and my youngest daughter's middle name is Jean - after me & my mom.
I named my first daughter Amelia Louise after the pioneering Amelia Earhart and my middle name; and my youngest is after her two great grandmothers - Annie and Rose - melded with a name I liked. I came up with Kristianne Rose
